We have 2 pairs of tickets for the Portland Lesbian and Gay Film Festival beginning Friday & running through October 9. The tickets will get the winners into any movie at Cinema 21 and Hollywood Theatre during the festival. To Win Tickets, comment on this post why you would like to attend. Winners will be drawn & emailed Friday, October 1 @ 3PM.

The festival continues through October 9 with screenings at Cinema 21, The Hollywood Theatre and Living Room Theaters. The festival closes with a screening of the fact-based British period drama THE SECRET DIARIES OF ANNE LISTER at the Hollywood Theatre.

In HOWL, James Franco stars as the young Allen Ginsberg – poet, counter-culture adventurer and chronicler of the Beat Generation. In his famously confessional, leave-nothing-out style, Ginsberg recounts the road trips, love affairs and search for personal liberation that led to the most timeless and electrifying work of his career, the poem “Howl.” The film is directed by the filmmakers behind THE LIFE AND TIMES OF HAVERY MILK and THE CELLULOID CLOSET.

Following the screening is our big Opening Night Gala Celebration at Art Department, 1315 SE 9th Ave.. There, you can have all the food and drink you like, without charge, provided by New Deal Vodka, Wild Abandon, Feastworks, and Crush. Music will be provided by DJ Jason Wann of Starry Saints. Decorations provided by Balloons on Broadway. The Gala is open to those 21 and older. No minors will be admitted. $10 at the door.

THE SECRET DIARIES OF ANNE LISTER is a bold and passionate drama telling the story of the real life Anne Lister, 1791-1840, a Yorkshire landowner, industrialist, traveller and diarist. She was a lesbian, who, despite needing to keep her orientation secret from society at large, in private defied the conventions of her times by living with her female lover. Anne kept a detailed account of her life, her loves and her emotions in a fascinating journal. A sizeable portion was written in code, and the recent deciphering of the diaries provides an astonishing insight into the life of the woman who has been called Britain’s first modern lesbian.

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Other festival highlights include:

BROTHERHOOD – Powerful Danish drama about two neo-Nazis who fall in love.

A MARINE STORY – Poignant American drama that reveals the high cost of the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy of the US military service. The film’s star, Dreya Weber will attend the festival.

HIDEAWAY – From France’s Francois Ozon. Mousse and Louis are young, beautiful, rich and in love. But drugs have invaded their lives. One day, they overdose and Louis dies. Mousse survives, but soon learns she’s pregnant. Feeling lost, Mousse runs away to a house far from Paris. Several months later, Louis’ gay brother joins her in her refuge.

BLOOMINGTON – American drama about a former child TV star who goes to college and quick begins a romance with one of her professors.

GEN SILENT – American documentary about the struggles of the aging LGBT community.

BEAR NATION – Documentary by Malcolm Ingram about Bears, a burly group of gay men who celebrate being hairy and large. Ingram will be in attendance.

I KILLED MY MOTHER – French Canadian drama that explores the turbulent relationship between a mother and a son.

TRAINING RULES – American documentary that examines how women’s collegiate sports, caught in a web of homophobic practices, collude in the destruction of the lives and dreams of many of its most talented athletes.

VIOLET TENDENCIES – American screwball comedy starring Mindy Cohn (Natalie from “The Facts of Life”) as a woman trying to distance herself from her gay friends in an effort to land a straight boyfriend.

UNDERTOW – Romantic Peruvian ghost story about a married fisherman struggling to reconcile his devotion to his male lover within his town’s rigid traditions. UNDERTOW is the official Peruvian submission for Best Foreign Film Oscar consideration.

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I have been excited about this movie for two years, and am lucky enough to be in Portland when this is taking place! I would like to attend because Beat poetry opened up my adolescence to ways of thought and art I wouldn’t have encountered otherwise. This movie (at an LGBT film festival! yay for us queers!) promises to make an artistic statement as well as chronicle an important historical event. I am very interested in the discussion afterward and what the filmmakers have to say about their approach.
Thanks for considering me!

Leigh Feldman you are awesome. I receive your email every Thursday and from there I decide what I’m doing for the weekend. You’ve never steered me wrong. I really want to win this tickets because the lgbtq film fest is fabulous. Plus I’m gay.

I’ve just moved here from Maryland, and have never heard of such a thing happening until now. I’ve a great interest in taking my girlfriend to the showing of Howl, but am unfortunately wasted financially from the costs of moving.

I’d love to win tickets to the gay and lesbian film festival. Why? I love great independent movies. Especially about the lgbt community. Plus with only 11days until my first half marathon, only good, clean fun is allowed until after 10.10.10 :) so yep I’d use the tickets for sure.

I moved to Portland a few months ago, thanks to an online job and the need to live someplace awesome. I love it here. However, I’m kind of shy, and since then I’ve only made one regular friend. I could use the tickets to take him out.

Well hello!
While I am sure everyone would like these tickets, I would LOVE them. I need to be surrounded by some gayness this weekend. I understand that I live in a very gay friendly town, I don’t always get the chance to bro it out. School just started and I work at the PSU bookstore (HELL during the first week of school) so I need to sit around and watch awesome movies with awesome people, maybe I could say awesome again. I won’t. So if you give me the tickets, you won’t disappoint me!

I’ve wanted to go to the Portland Gay & Lesbian Film Festival every year since I moved here (6 years ago) and I’ve never been able to afford even one movie! :( I’m gay and I really want to support people that make queer movies, especially ones like The Sisters, but I work for a bunch of non-profits, most of which don’t pay :(

As a fairly sheltered, homosexual youth, I think exposure to this kind of thing would be rather enlightening for me. I have come to terms with my sexuality and am still in a somewhat transitory period when it comes to my ‘pride’. I think that participating in an event like this would give me a sense of social solidarity in a context outside of stereotypical ‘gay-culture’ of clubs and foam parties. Plus, I really wanna see the bear documentary. That is why I would like you to give the tickets to me. Those two reasons.

I need to be at this festival. If I win tickets, I’m going to find a cute girl to take with me…have a great love affair…turn that into a screenplay for a movie…premier that movie at next year’s festival.

I am excited at the possibility of going to more than one film at this festival. I have always wanted to go to more than one. I am gay. I am a film buff. I often have not had the opportunity to go more than one. I look forward every year to see the offerings. I have a sister from Calif. who would love to hear if I won.

Just now read the instructions for posting, duh. I would love to go to the film festival because- I recently moved to Portland from a very conservative, straight community. I am blown away by the open heartedness here. When the preconceived walls come down, you are left with genuine human kindness. I find it touching and can’t get enough.

I can’t watch ‘blockbuster’ movies and such because it makes me feel empty inside, like Spidey’s companionless existence in that nylon/lycra get up of his…so I watch documentaries and stories of real humans with depth, character and complexity. It makes me feel happy. Did I mention that some of my best friends are gay? Seriously.

I just moved to Portland and would love to win these tickets to watch all of these amazing films. Having just moved I definitely don’t have the funds to watch all the movies I would like to see. This would be a great introduction into the lgbt community here